News

Sing a Bit of Harmony Anime's Trailer Reveals More Cast, October 29 Opening

Funimation began streaming a new trailer for it and J.C. Staff's original anime film coproduction Sing a Bit of Harmony (Ai no Utagoe o Kikasete, literally "Let Me Hear You Sing of Love") on Tuesday. The trailer reveals more cast members for the film, and also reveals the film's October 29 opening date in Japan.

The new cast members include (Note: Character name romanizations are not official) Kenjirō Tsuda as Saijō (both left column in image below), a branch manager of Seikan Electronics; Sayaka Ōhara as Satomi's mother Mitsuko; and Kenji Hamada as Nomiyama, a researcher in Seikan Electronics and the one in charge of the Shion Project. Japanese comedian Kazlaser and former Takarazuka actress Miyu Sakihi will also voice as-yet unspecified roles in the film.

Funimation's new synopsis for the film is as follows:

Sing a Bit of Harmony tells the story of the beautiful and mysterious Shion (Tao Tsuchiya) who transfers to Keibu High School where she quickly becomes popular for her open-hearted personality and exceptional athletic talent... but she turns out to be an AI (artificial intelligence) in the testing phase! Shion's goal is to bring chronic loner Satomi (Haruka Fukuhara) “happiness.” But her strategy is something no human would expect: she serenades Satomi in the middle of the classroom. After finding out that Shion is an AI, Satomi and her childhood friend, engineering geek Toma (Asuka Kudō), steadily warm up to the new student. Along with the popular and attractive Gotchan (Kazuyuki Okitsu), the strong-willed Aya (Mikako Komatsu), and judo club member "Thunder" (Satoshi Hino), they become more and more moved by Shion's singing voice and earnestness even as her antics bewilder them. But what Shion does for Satomi's sake ends up involving them all in some serious pandemonium… Get ready for the heartwarming story of a not quite market-ready AI and her classmates!

The film is "coming soon" to theaters in the United States and Canada.

The cast includes:

• Tao Tsuchiya as Shion Ashimori
• Haruka Fukuhara as Satomi Amano
• Asuka Kudō as Tо̄ma
• Kazuyuki Okitsu as gocchan
• Mikako Komatsu as Aya
• Satoshi Hino as Thunder

Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Time of Eve and Patema Inverted) is directing the film. Yoshiura and Ichirō Ōkouchi (Code Geass, Princess Principal, Seven Days War) are co-writing the script. Kanna Kii, the creator of the Seaside Stranger manga, drew the original character designs. Shuichi Shimamura (Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile) is designing the characters for animation, and is also the chief animation director.

Ryō Takahashi (Sk8 the Infinity) is composing the music, and Yohei Matsui (Ensemble Stars!) is writing the songs.

Sources: Press release, Sing a Bit of Harmony's website, Comic Natalie